


Fool For You

by LittleMsStark3000



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower, Black Widow - Freeform, Captain America: Civil War (Movie), F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Iron Man 2, Iron Widow - Freeform, Jealousy, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Post-Avengers (2012), Romantic Gestures, Slow Romance, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, ironman - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 23:30:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18861151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMsStark3000/pseuds/LittleMsStark3000
Summary: Five times Tony Stark got jealous but could not admit it, and the one time he did because Natasha made him.





	Fool For You

**Author's Note:**

> First installment of my IronWidow x Zayn Malik songs Collection. Not MCU compliant, purely fangirling over TonyNat because they deserve all my love.

The first time Tony felt that _strange feeling_ because of Natasha was the first time he saw her having a hearty laugh with Happy Hogan. Both would usually be together as they were always needed by him and Pepper then - in the tower, at the parking lot, outside their meeting rooms, at the hotel lobby, or pretty much everywhere they could stand by or sit as they wait - unless the two were required beside them.

"Come on, tell me more. I sure can keep secrets."

Tony overheard Natasha - he still knew her as Natalie that time - chuckling as she spoke to his long-time chauffeur and friend. She sounded more personal and less the professional tone she used on him. Of course, that was a given; he was boss, while Happy was a colleague who has probably turned into a friend also to her after a couple of weeks. The billionaire mechanic admitted that he was not even in the acquaintance department. It was pure employer-employee relationship. 

He dismissed the idea of jealousy because why would he be? Does he even like Natalie? She is amazing, beautiful, smart, efficient - yes. But he was already going steady with Pepper. He couldn't like her, could he?

If he was even a bit envious of the scene, it was maybe because... Happy shared his secrets to her?

He wanted to believe that, as much as he now believes that she really can keep secrets.

*****

The second time Tony felt that _strange feeling_ was when Natasha cried on Clint Barton's shoulder. It was at the funeral, two days after Agent Phil Coulson was killed. 

Needless to say, he dismissed the uncalled-for emotion. He acknowledged that Black Widow, the only woman in their team a.k.a. Avengers, was very much close to the Hawkeye. He learned that the relationship of these two has come a long way - from Barton saving Natalia Romanova in her deadly assasin past to the two of them being top SHIELD agents and partners. He recognised that it was only to Clint that Natasha could be that vulnerable.

He looked away and did not dwell anymore on this thought. Being jealous of the two was improper with the situation at hand, his mind dictated.

*****

The third time Tony felt that _strange feeling_ was when Natasha left his side to Steve Rogers'. When he was finally able to think things through after his encounter with Captain "sometimes-my-friends-don't-tell-me-things" America and Bucky Barnes, he supposed her initial choice of staying by him was out of pity: over his guilt on Ultron, of him being left by Pepper because he could not give up Iron Man, and maybe she even knew about his parents' tragedy in the hands of Winter Soldier. Along the way though, her loyalty to Steve obviously took over. How could he discount their friendship and long-time SHIELD connection? Heck, she let him escape, and she even went rogue with his team!

Tony would rather feel anger or indifference towards what happened. He hated the situation. He could not hate Natasha though. Deep in his chest, he wished that the care she has shown him before their situation went hayward was true.

He let her in, further than he thought he ever would. He had hopes that things could work out for them... between them...

Consequently, he had more emotions at this point to process than just jealousy.

*****

The fourth time Tony felt the _strange feeling_ again, years after the last, he was in denial. Cap and him have reconciled and the Avengers are back as a team - now, with more than just the original six.  With Clint retiring to farm family life and Thor back in Asgard to lead his people, the Stark Tower-turned-Avengers Compound housed Tony with Natasha, Bruce, Steve, and their new allies Sam, Wanda, Vision, plus the youngest of them all, Peter Parker a.k.a. Spiderman.

He remembered, Natasha barely talked with Peter during his first few days in the compound as Stark Industries intern. Living and training as one team though, Natasha grew fonder of the kid week on week. 

If them drawing closer was because of their arachnid blood - she being the Black Widow and Peter the Spiderling - he could only assume. One time, he just spotted them working out together in the gym. The next thing he realized, they already have TV series they regularly watch together and episodes were shown on her days off... which she previously spent hanging around his workshop to help him in tinkering or just talking about random stuff while they drink iced coffee. 

He wasn't jealous. He just missed having the redhead around.

*****

The fifth time he felt that strange feeling was when he accidentally heard Natasha talking with someone over the phone and incidentally eavesdropped on the conversation.

He went to her room to check if she wanted waffles and iced coffee to munch on before her favorite series starts, disregarding the fact that he could simply use intercomm or tell Friday to reach her.

But then - 

"I don't know, Clint... I really don't. I don't know how it got here... Does it sound terrifying if i say i do?... We stayed here together, that's what happened..." 

Her responses were the only ones he could hear from her room's door. How he wished he has super hearing like Cap... or... 

_Shame_ , the logical part of his brain commented after he decided to tap on the line discreetly to hear everything.

Again, completely disregarded. He wasn't bothered by Natasha talking with her best friend, but by her seemingly confessing her feelings for someone else!

Clint: So what do you do about that?

Nat: Maybe you can tell me?

Clint: Why me? Tasha, this isn't like tactics in Budapest at all.

Nat: Clint, come on, you gotta help me out here. Between the two of us, you know this better. 

Clint: What? Why? 

Nat: You're more human. 

Clint: Ohhh-kay?

Nat: You have a wife! And probably by now Lila shares same stuff as this with you and Laura.

Clint: Hey, hey. Listen. Why don't you just let it be?

Nat: No. This sucks.

Clint: Natasha, that's okay. You're fine... And I think the guy likes you, too.

Nat: How can you tell that?

Clint: I'm more human. Trust me.

Nat: Ugh.

Clint: Gotta go drive for Laura. Call you back later.

Nat: Alright. Say hello to her and the kids for me.

Tony hurried and went straight to his workshop.

_Damn waffles and iced coffee._

He slumped on his couch, looking up the ceiling for minutes. Then he felt like bursting so he voiced out his thoughts. Anyway, it was his safe sanctuary. 

"Nat likes _someone_ in the team? Someone _in this house_? Who's that?" 

He noticed from the periphery that Butterfingers moved as if it heard his random musings. Yeah, he needed that. Just someone - or something - to at least listen. Unlike Nat, not in this lifetime will he share something like this to his BFFs, Rhodey or Pepper.

"Come on... Is it still Steve? Bruce? Sam? Vis is with Wanda. No, don't tell me it's Peter! God, that's just a kid!"

Frustrated and still cannot believe what he heard, Tony burried his face in his hands, elbows on his knees. 

"Me? No, it can't be me," he immediately dismissed. "That's impossible. I mean, i want it, am i kidding me? Of course, i want it. Damn, but there's not a single sign that it could be me. We hardly talk anymore," he breathed deeply, shut his eyes and rested his head at the backrest of the couch.

"It's more likely to be Bruce, they get along pretty well. Or Sam? His punchlines work? Nah..." Tony shook his aching head. "Steve - they got history. And she told Clint, so maybe it's really Steve. It's always been him."

"Or maybe no."

Tony felt like his soul suddenly left his body with the shock. Natasha just spoke right behind him!

"Nat!" he jumped to his feet and turned towards her. "You there for long?" 

"Long enough." 

_Fuck spy skills._

And he recalled giving her access in his workshop a few months back because he welcomed her to hang around there when she feels like it. 

"You..." he motioned his hands as if asking if she heard anything. 

The redhead nodded with a smirk. "I heard. Too." Then she meaningfully added. "Karma's a bitch."

Tony sighed. 

"Look, Nat... I'm sorry, okay? I don't really do that. Just... It's stupid, really," he avoided her eyes and walked to the other side of his workstation, farther from Natasha with a couple of tables between them, but still facing her.

"Thought you are genius," she crossed her arms on her chest.

Tony shrugged. "Overrated."

"Also thought you'd figure out what you heard."

"Complicated."

"Does it bother you that i like someone in the team?"

"As long as it's not Peter, i'm cool. It's a free country."

"I see."

He did not reply to that, and Natasha spoke again. 

"I thought you were jealous, too."

"No -" 

"I hoped you were." 

His eyebrows furrowed. Did he hear her correctly? 

"... because that'd mean I'm not alone in this." Natasha talked nonchalantly but her eyes looked wary as she walked to the couch and sat there, avoiding looking at him.

Tony walked back to the couch and sat too beside her, leaving space between them that could fit another person. He turned his head to look at her and ask, dumbfounded. "Did you just say... I mean, this... Do you think, we..."

"Tony, can you finish at least one thing you are trying to say?" her voice was low, supressing a smile, when she turned her head his way too. 

"I am jealous," he just blurted then, staring straight at her.

Finally, there was no need to deny him his own feelings or tag it as simply _strange_. He had been lingering for a while now. It was time to settle this.

Natasha moved to close their distance and laid her head on his shoulder. He put an arm over hers to pull her closer that she could already kiss the crook of his neck, and her arms automatically wrapped around his waist.

"It's fine. We're alright." It was almost a whisper from Natasha.

He smiled and pressed his lips on her forehead. "Always."

*****

"When you're looking like this  
I just can't resist it  
I know sometimes I hide it  
But I can't this time  
'cause it's gonna defeat me  
But if you won't believe me  
Believe me  
'Cause I'm a fool for you and the things you do..." 

\- Fool for You, Zayn Malik

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you for reading this! I'd appreciate any feedback or comment from you. Let me know also if you have IronWidow / TonyNat requests and I'd be glad to look into them. ❤️


End file.
